1. When possible, the
quotations are from the translations made by English positivists in
the 19th century. Page reference is given first to the French text,
and, in the case of the Course of Positive Philosophy, the
number of the lesson is given too; then follows the reference to the
English translation. For instance (1830 (56), v. 2, 466; E., v. 2, 522
) refers to the passage of the 56th lesson which is in the second
volume of the french edition, p. 466, the translation of which is in
the second volume of the english edition, p. 522. The same conventions
are used for all Comte’s works.

2. Comte uses “material”
in a wide sense, refering to temporal power, in contradistinction to
spiritual power. Furthermore, he uses here a term which is difficult
to translate: “légiste”; today,
“lawyer” means rather “avocat”. As a matter of
fact, kings used those légistes in order to enlarge
their power against medieval aristocraty; such was for instance
Leibniz’s function at the Hannover Court.

3. After the creation of
the religion of Humanity, Comte, according to the context, capitalizes
or do not capitalize the word.

4. See the first letter Mill
sent to Comte (India House, London, 8 nov 1841). Mill wrote in
French:

5. See, for example,
H. Taine, in his Le positivisme anglais, étude sur Stuart
Mill (1864). Note also that the distinction W. Dilthey drew
between Naturwissenschaft and Geisteswissenschaft
arose in a critical discussion of Mill’s theory of moral sciences (the
last part of the System of Logic). Dilthey considers this,
with some reason, as a positivist conception. (See
S. Mesure, Dilthey et la fondation des sciences historiques,
Paris: PUF, 1990.) It might be surprising that Mill was considered a
positivist on the continent. One can ask if this
interpretation is correct, but this is another point.